=over

=item wait
X<wait>

Behaves like L<wait(2)> on your system: it waits for a child
process to terminate and returns the pid of the deceased process, or
C<-1> if there are no child processes.  The status is returned in
L<C<$?>|perlvar/$?> and
L<C<${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>|perlvar/${^CHILD_ERROR_NATIVE}>.
Note that a return value of C<-1> could mean that child processes are
being automatically reaped, as described in L<perlipc>.

If you use L<C<wait>|/wait> in your handler for
L<C<$SIG{CHLD}>|perlvar/%SIG>, it may accidentally wait for the child
created by L<C<qx>|/qxE<sol>STRINGE<sol>> or L<C<system>|/system LIST>.
See L<perlipc> for details.

Portability issues: L<perlport/wait>.

=back